Tuesday, 29 June 2010

hello there.

Im sitting outside on my shabby stoop. im being eaten alive, but inside the air is like hot mud. rainy season has started and the humidity is cloying. my apartment smells earthy, like forest floors and mushrooms, (which may be something to do with the rotting tatami mat festering under my futon.)

at this moment im surrounded by tea lights, a glass of red wine in hand. the only sound is the hum of insects and floating scales, as my landlord practices the flute next door. little does he know the warm fuzzy feeling he is providing me with, as i remember summer nights as a kid, with my mum lulling us to sleep with soothing notes from her flute drifting up from the basement of our house on spencer road.

there are things i need to talk about from the past few weeks. I need to tell you about the hydrangeas and how astonished i am at the variety and the vibrance of their abundant blooms, as i cycle along the river each day. how can there be that many? who put them there? how is that electric blue even be possible? every day i am amazed.

i need to tell you about life at the schools and about how we take off our shoes at the door and wear slippers all day! and how at 2,30 on the dot, a melody plays which heralds cleaning time and all the students appear with brooms and mops and buckets and whirl around the corridors until the school gleams, like something from a disney film... and how they greet me through out the day with nods and waves,whoops and high fives and genuinely excited faces.

and how i cant walk around my neighborhood without hearing excited squeals where ever i go. i dont know what the secret is but im telling you, the kids here are just so easily pleased! even the cool older kids. they just seem so happy to be at school. its weirrrrd!

its also weird that they are allowed to sleep on their desks during class! seriously and the teachers dont do a thing about it. and that despite the notoriously long hours japanese kids spend at school their english ability is woefully low ( i guess you cant lean when youre asleep!) the text books are unchallenging and 10% incorrect! and that the japanese teachers actually teach them that 'sit' is pronounced with an 'sh'! ...but thats a whole other post.

i need to tell you much much more about the summery events that have been occurring in these parts but its way past my bed time and my eyelids are heavy so I'll have to leave it at that for now.